In verses 7-8 the psalmist praises Yahweh for all his goodness to him. To bless the LORD is to praise him, to thank him for his blessings. Here the psalmist praises Yahweh because he instructs him, gives me counsel. This instruction is moral and spiritual. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “who tells me what I should do”; Good News Translation “he guides me.”
The expression bless the LORD must normally be recast to express praise, as in Good News Translation. “Praise” is sometimes rendered “I speak well of the LORD” or “I say the LORD is great.” Where the cause clause must precede the consequence of the action, the full expression may be rendered “Because the LORD teaches me, I will speak well of him.”
In the night translates a plural in Hebrew which can mean “during the watches of the night” or “every night.” Briggs takes it as an intensive plural, “in the dark night.” Heart translates the word for “kidneys” (see comments on 7.9); in English “conscience” (Good News Translation, New Jerusalem Bible, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible) seems the best translation.
The verb for instructs me, translated “warns” in Good News Translation, means to correct, discipline, chasten, instruct (see “chasten” in 6.1b; 2.10 “take warning”). Dahood understands this to be a reference to Yahweh himself and translates “(his) heart instructs me.” Biblia Dios Habla Hoy also takes Yahweh to be the subject of the verb, and translates “in my inmost being he corrects me night after night.” It seems better, however, to take it as a first person singular pronoun, the psalmist’s own conscience. Anderson comments: “the poet’s own conscience … bears witness to the divine word.”
The expression my heart instructs me may have to be recast in some languages if it is to be taken as in the Good News Translation sense of “conscience.” For example, “what I know in my heart tells me,” “the thoughts I have in my innermost teach me,” or “my thoughts show me the way to go.”
Note how the parallel expressions counsel and instructs cover similar areas of meaning. In some languages it is not possible to render instructs with two different words. In such cases the translator must often translate both lines a and b with the same word. However, if the Hebrew term in line b is taken in the wider sense of “to correct” or “to discipline,” it may be possible to render line b “in the night my heart shows me the good road to follow” or “in the night I think about the right way to live.”
Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .